Ebay are being sued by LVMH, DIOR & UNIFAB 4!

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I'm glad these big fashion houses are finally doing something about this & I hope the win!

I've been an eBay user for a fair while & it makes me sick seeing the amount of fakes on eBay. Over 90% of the stuff on eBay is fake in terms of Gucci. LV is about 80% but this is a terrible statistic. I feel so sorry for the ebayers & the amount of times I had to say their purses were fake when auth on purse auth board on ebay..

France's Union of Manufacturers (Unifab), an industry group, is all set to sue eBay and other auction sites, for selling counterfeit products on their web pages.

According to Marc Antoine Jamet, chairman of Unifab, the objective of the lawsuit is to crack down on product pirates and fakes that are making profit, thanks to eBay and other Internet auction sites. Other auction sites that may be sued along with eBay include iOffer.com, Yahoo! and Japan's Rakuten.

In defense, Bay spokesman Hani Duzry said the company operates an anti-counterfeit goods program and constantly monitors auctions for blatantly infringing products and removes them. However, Unifab insists that eBAY had refused Unifab's request to shut down merchants of counterfeit goods for the past two years.

The French group has also backed the lawsuit with concrete examples of eBay having sold 2,35,000 counterfeit articles of leather goods maker Louis Vuitton on 340 eBay pages. Unifab will ask prosecutors to seek damages and interest from the auction sites in relation to the alleged losses suffered by the firms, which could run well into millions of Euros. In addition, Unifab also wants to prosecute the sites for providing the means to resell counterfeit goods. The group is also seeking a revision on laws in relation to electronic commerce to make online auctioneers "co-responsible" for the goods that are sold on their sites.

By Adam Jones in ParisPublished: September 20 2006 18:51 | Last updated: September 20 2006 18:51

The luxury goods industrys determination to stamp out counterfeiting has led to Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior Couture suing Ebay, the online auctioneer, for 37m ($47m, £25m).It emerged on Wednesday that the two fashion labels began a civil complaint in Paris over the summer in the belief that the products sold on Ebay bearing their names were fakes in the vast majority of cases.

It is the second time that Ebay has been targeted in the courts by a luxury goods group worried about counterfeit sales, viewed as being one of the sectors greatest threats. The company was already being sued in the US by Tiffany, the jeweller.Louis Vuitton, part of Frances LVMH, is understood to be demanding 20m in damages and interest allegedly related to sales of counterfeit goods on Ebay between 2001 and 2005.Christian Dior Couture - part of Christian Dior, which is also controlled by LVMH head Bernard Arnault - is claiming 17m.

Ebays French arm said it had already mounted an aggressive campaign against fakes put up for sale by its members. All sales of counterfeit products on Ebay are totally illegal, it said.

Under a monitoring system called Vero - short for verified rights owner - it encourages trademark owners to notify it of fakes that need to be removed from the site. However, it admits it cannot screen all transactions carried out by its myriad members.

LVMH is understood to want improvements to Ebays monitoring system, which it believes puts an unfair policing obligation on brand owners rather than the auction site itself.

Ebay is also coming under pressure on the issue of counterfeiting from Unifab, a French association for trademark holders, which said on Wednesday that the online auctioneer had agreed to discuss the matter.

LVMH has already successfully sued Google, the search engine operator, in France over allegations that it had provided links to sites that sold counterfeit versions of Louis Vuitton products.Google was fined 200,000 - a sum that was increased to 300,000 when the US company lost its appeal in June.

As well as hunting down rogue sellers online, luxury goods brands are also trying to decide how best to use the internet for legitimate sales.Accustomed to close control over distribution, the industry was initially cautious about the web, with its more freewheeling style, but online stores are becoming more common among fashion houses and accessory makers.

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so either way, ebay fees are going to go up cause they have to spned more time getting rid of bad auctions. I say just get educated and be a smart buyer. You can't stop counterfeiters.

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I completely agree with you on this. You cannot stop this type of crime because there are such minute things to notice and eBay can't have a Luxury Goods troll sifting through all of the fakes all day. If they miss one, what? they're liable for it?

LVMH and the other labels should be working with eBay, not punishing it, by providing them the tools and resources to catch this type of stuff. They should hire their own people, create whole dept.'s for this type of stuff, if they seek to maintain their competitive edge.

If they won't get rid of the guys selling coutnerfeits in ront of the 5th ave store, why would they go ahead and punish a global enterprise like eBay? eBay is not the Internet and is not the source of the problem. They should go after the places that physically distribute or sell directly via web portals such as ehandbagz, bergacci, ebagz, laperle, etc..

This is really bullish and I think the whole approach is rubbish. You don't stop a 4 alarm building fire by destroying the building. You try to cut off as much oxygen to the fire and water it down to save the structure.

This will solve nothing by punishing eBay with excessive charges. And ebay will pass those charges unto the sellers. :s

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I totally agree that this lawsuit is not the most productive way to go about stamping out fakes. I heard about this lawsuit coming a long time ago from my friend who works at LVMH. Personally, I think it is greedy of LV to ask for payment that equals the retail prices of their products for the items sold on ebay. Obviously not every person that purchased a fake LV off ebay would have gone and bought a real one instead. Their way of suing for lost profit is just downright greedy.... I would understand if it was suing for defamation of the company name, but it's not just about that.
I agree with whoever said that LV should instead work with ebay to weed out fakes, and not hold ebay alone accountable for finding out all the fakers. Ebay is not a qualified expert in authenticating LV, and now that even LV themselves refuse to authenticate how could they hold ebay responsible? Greedy greedy greedy.

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I wonder if it could eventually result in them dropping all LV, Gucci etc. goods fake and authentic eventually... just not allowing designer goods for auction period, so they dont have to police the auction of these items one way or the other. That could happen, if its just too much of a headache, not sure how they can ensure every single designer item is authentic that gets listed, would be a good thing though if its possible.

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Just b/c they are suing for a certain amount does not mean they will receive that award. If LVMH wins, they will likely receive either a large percentage of the seller's fees recovered by ebay for counterfeit LV or if they can prove an actual loss in sales due to ebay, they may be able to recover the difference (though such an amount would be difficult to ascertain and most courts do not like to speculate too much with damages).

Ebay claims that it cannot "police" everything as an excuse for the plethora of fakes. However ebay turns a blind eye so as not to lose out on seller's fees. Ebay would be out millions of dollars every year if most fake auctions were removed. This lawsuit is really the only way to force ebay to be accountable. I know that personally, I report at least one counterfeit auction per day and they are almost never removed despite being clearly fraudulent (I'm talking a 0 FB seller who stole someone else's photos etc). Ebay will not give a damn until they get sued and lose, imho.